Visible wingtip vortex!

Yesterday I was flying back from a weekend camping trip, and came up
behind my friend in his AA5. I started getting up close, and was
feeling the effect of the vortex off his right wingtip. I reached the
point that I had my ailerons deflected almost 50-60% to the right just
to stay level, when I suddenly SAW the vortex hitting my windshield!

I know if I heard this description I would say it was bull****. But I
saw it, as did my passengers. It was a tube of swirling distortion,
dropping down off his wingtip and then coming back to us. At that
point, I had rolled out of position, and was way off to his right. My
passengers all wanted to see it again, so we dropped behind and
started closing in again.

Imagine the way heatwaves createa a shimmering effect. It was the
same thing, except it was swirling instead of shimmering. We saw it
twice more, and it was a lot of work to do it. There is a VERY narrow
cone behind the wingtip in which it's visible, and it's very difficult
to stay in one position while the vortex is essentially centered on
the windshield.

We all tried to describe it in words, and the bottom line is it looked
like some strange special effect from a movie. Words like "wormhole"
were thrown around. But if I had seen this in a movie I would have
said it was bull**** and complained about directors making up crap
just for special effects.

So, I'm going to try to duplicate this at some point, and video
tape.it. The sun was in front of us, and that may have played a part,
but I'll find a way to duplicate it and get it on video.

When I do, I'll post it on my site and I'll announce it here as well.

Anyone else actually seen the wingtip vortex like I'm trying to
describe?


Bill Strahan
------------
Find a new reason to fly
www.adventurepilot.com

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